Friday, April 3, 2009

The Subways in Concert at Conrad Sohm/Austria

It was hot. It was packed. It was sweaty. It was awesome! Having rocked Japan, Australia and the Netherlands, English alternative-rock band The Subways from Welvyn Garden City finally made it to Austria and stayed for an evening at the Conrad Sohm in Dornbirn.

Entering the stage at around 10p.m. they started off Kalifornia, a new song from their 2008 album All or Nothing. They rocked on - non stop for four more songs - until the first chords of Marymade the crowd slow down a bit. But as the chorus roared out of the amplifiers the 500 people got mad again: fans hit the stage, trying to kiss Charlotte on the cheek and then got pulled down by the security personnel (one succeeded though), a tiny Wall of Death and pogo throughout the rest of the concert.

With a speed of 15 songs per hour, what seemed like no more than ten minutes, they left the crowd shouting for more. Guitarist Billy Lunn took his semi-acoustic and started playing Strawberry Blonde, a ballad about his relationship with bass-player Charlotte Cooper. The importance of this songs also reflects in his tattoo saying "Strawberry Blonde" across his waist. After a minute Charlotte and drummer Josh Morgan joined the stage to end the song together. Rocking the house then again with Boys & Girls, the Subways decided to blow the club into pieces by closing the show with Rock & Roll Queen. With an extended version consisting of some great singalongs due to Billy's infamous interaction with the crowd and his stage-dive climaxing in a shot of Schnaps and half a pint of beer on the bar, they finished the show with a translated version of the second verse:

A scan of the original setlist is available on the setlist.fm facebook-page (where you must become a fan ;-)). The Subways promised to come back, I doubt, however, that the club will be big enough if word gets round how they rocked the house.